Far South Coast nurses strike for the third time this year, staff 'deflated and burnt-out'

A group of around 70 members from the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association met for a march and rally at Bega's Littleton Gardens on Thursday, September 1.

South East Regional Hospital delegate Diane Lang said the strike was held to enable nurses to better support the community to get the patient care they needed.

Brach secretary Nadine Guennell added that patients in NSW deserved the same level of care as they got in Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory, and Victoria - states she said already had sufficient ratios.

Nurse graduate Laureen Kelly, who commenced the job in early 2022 said she had not been able to receive the support she needed as a new grad on the floor due to being extremely short-staffed.

"That's a reflection of the system that is broken throwing our educators into clinical roles where they can't get give us the education we need.

"We're so short-staffed that the skills mix is so junior that I'm driving to work with anxiety thinking someone is going to die today and that is because I would look at the roster and see it's just myself and another new grad rostered on," she said.

She said many new grads were still very passionate about their chosen career paths but had been left feeling "deflated" "broken" and "burnt-out" after working through the pandemic while being short-staffed.

Georg Chad, who is a registered nurse at South East Regional hospital said the message from the NSW government that nurses "were coping" was not the reality for nurses on the ground.

"We know we're not, the system is crumbling around us," he said.

He encouraged the cohort of nurses to engage with the community "so the public is aware of the reality and not the counter-narrative being fed to us by the government".

The state government has criticised the industrial actions, and says unions are holding NSW to ransom.

The state-wide 24 hour strike would conclude at 7am on Friday September 2.